AOL Video Ticker Ads Are Pre-roll Alternative

AOL's stab at video ads is the latest alternative to pre-roll and overlaying ads that tick off users.

AOL Nov. 19 began showing video ticker ads for video content shown over the Internet, the latest alternative to pre-roll online ads that put off impatient consumers.
Developed with the help of the TickerBoy technology from PointRoll, AOLs video ticker ad is a graphics banner ad integrated within a streaming video.

AOLs video ticker ad appears at the bottom of the video player 10 seconds into the stream. When a viewer clicks the ticker, it expands to launch a video ad or interactive Flash ad within the video player window.

Unlike intrusive overlay ads that block out the video, the ad expands while the video pauses. If the user does not interact with the ad, it will dissolve after 15 seconds, leaving the branded text link at the top of the player. Users can relaunch the ticker by clicking on this link.
These ads will run across the AOL network of video content within the newest version of the AOL Video media player platform.
This video ad format is a new facet of AOLs ambitious strategy to tackle Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in the online advertising market, where billions of dollars are at stake for those vendors that can sell ads in new and creative formats.
Video, along with mobile ads and widget ads, is one way these vendors hope to pair ads with content. eMarketer expects the market for online video advertising to smash the $1 billion barrier by next year. The trick is to show the ads as innocuously as possible.
Google began offering in-video ads on its YouTube video-sharing site. These ads, launched Aug. 21, only run on the bottom fifth of the screen so as not to annoy users. Google began formally offering video units to content providers in its AdSense network Oct. 9.
Read more here about in-video ads on YouTube.
With its emphasis on being unobtrusive, AOLs video ad approach is similar to that of Google; the idea is to show the ad without severely disrupting users view of the video content.
If the content they choose to view is disrupted, not only may users avoid clicking on the ads, but they may avoid the site altogether, which is the last thing content providers and advertisers want.
Worse, advertisers wont reach their audiences and may abandon advertising on sites that are failing to help their ads reach mass audiences.
AOLs video ticker ad system is a new feature in Platform A, the initiative the company unveiled Sept. 17 to better compete in the online ad market.
Platform A includes assets from video ad platform Lightningcast, third-party ad provider Advertising.com, contextual advertiser Quigo, behavioral targeting leader Tacoda, mobile advertising specialist Third Screen Media and global ad server Adtech.
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